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Many dinner conversations and friendly debates proceed in a data vacuum: “The problem is big… very big!” How big exactly? Most likely your friend has no idea.&nbsp;<br />
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It is often said that we live in a new data age. Institutions such as the Bank, UN agencies, NASA, ESA, universities and others have deluged us with an overwhelming amount of new data obtained painstakingly from countries and surveys or observed by the increasing number of eyes in the sky. We have modern tools such as mobile phones that are more powerful than old mainframes I used to use in my university days. You can be in rural Malawi and still have access to decent 3G data networks.<br />
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Open data for sustainable development </strong>
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However, this new data age has unfortunately not really dawned for most of us, on any side of the digital divide. This is because much of the information that we seek to help us understand the world around us is locked up in various Ministry rooms where termites do the only digestion of these data, or are in formats we have never heard of, or hidden in a portal whose address you will never remember…or possibly stored behind passwords you created but have long forgotten. And we all know that data that cannot be accessed or visualized easily are as good as not having any data at all, which then leads to the culture we often see of data-free analysis or analysis-free decision making. &nbsp;<br />
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The problem is big… very big indeed, as you cannot manage what you cannot measure—or access. However, there is growing interest in doing something with all the gadgets and big data out there, and making sure they work in concert for the common good. At the <a href="http://mashable.com/sgs/" rel="nofollow">Social Good Summit</a> held by the UN Foundation and Mashable earlier this week, there were plenty of appeals to channel data to advance causes such as gender equality, ending HIV/AIDS or restoring ocean health. I was privileged to be part of the program and <a href="http://livestream.com/Mashable/english2015/videos/100592850" rel="nofollow">presented a new application</a> developed by the World Bank that can go some way toward organizing the current big data cosmos in hopefully helpful ways. <strong>The App, called <em>Spatial Agent</em>, aims to put a world of data at your fingertips.</strong><br />
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Spatial Agent: A new look at development data </strong>
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A fair warning: This is an App for curious and eclectic minds. Our target audience ranges from World Bankers to water ministers, schoolgirls and farmers. If you have ever wondered:<br />
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<em>Which areas in the Middle East have experienced rain in the last 3 hours? How have humans changed the global landscape since 1700? Which areas are susceptible to earthquakes in Chile? Which areas in India have high child malnutrition? How does Vietnam's GDP per capita growth compare with that of Ethiopia in recent years?&nbsp; How do the world’s countries compare in terms of the percentage of women in their parliaments? ...</em><br />
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Then this App is for you!<br />
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A small team that I lead at the World Bank has put together what we hope will be a new paradigm for development data—to highlight public-domain datasets from sources around the world. <em>Spatial Agent</em> can be downloaded for free for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spatial-agent/id890565166?mt=8" rel="nofollow">iOS (e.g. iPhone, iPad) </a>or <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.worldbank.spatialagent&amp;hl=en" rel="nofollow">Android (phones or tables)</a> platforms and pulls together thousands of types of data from over 300 web services from major institutions around the world. A <a href="http://www.appsolutelydigital.com/SpatialAgent/" rel="nofollow">web version</a> is also under development (but you can already take a peek).<br />
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These are early days—we hope to add more iconic datasets, help our clients put data in more open data service formats, introduce more innovative visualization, interactivity, functionality and customization, and provide training and helpdesk support so that this becomes an indispensable tool for us all—conversations, fact checking, tweets and facebook postings will never be the same again!&nbsp;<br />
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So <a href="http://apps.worldbank.org/" rel="nofollow"><strong>download <em>Spatial Agent</em> now</strong></a> and take it for a spin. Please do <a href="mailto:spatialagent@worldbank.org?subject=Feedback%20on%20Spatial%20Agent" rel="nofollow">send</a> us your feedback, suggestions for improvement and tell us how the data has helped you in your work and daily life. Let’s make the wealth of data work for us in going from big problems to big solutions to make the world a better place!&nbsp;Fri, 02 Oct 2015 10:49:00 -0400Nagaraja Rao HarshadeepThe Secret Advantages of Being Younghttp://blogs.worldbank.org/youthink/do-young-people-have-advantags-they-dont-know-about
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<img alt="Female students from the University of Laos during a Library Week event in campus." src="https://blogs.worldbank.org/youthink/files/youthink/sgs.jpg" style="height:333px; width:560px" /><br />
<em>Female students from the University of Laos during a Library Week event&nbsp;on campus.</em><br />
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It’s not great to <a href="http://www.esquire.com/features/october-2013" rel="nofollow">be young</a>, said Chris Colfer, a 23-year-old American actor, singer, and author to Esquire magazine for their The Life of Man project.<br />
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It’s hard to disagree with Colfer. Youth are usually considered reckless, restless, and aimless. But in recent years things have changed. The change seemed more apparent last Sunday at the <a href="http://mashable.com/sgs/" rel="nofollow">Social Good Summit</a>, an annual event that celebrates technology and social action.</p>
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Almost every speaker pointed out how young people are creating solutions for the problems they and their communities are facing. “Young people want to be involved and really want to have their voice heard,” said Mette-Marit, crown princess of Norway. Young people are using social media to create a world where they have to access to clean water and air, livable land, quality education, and better opportunities for growth.<br />
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As impacts of globalization and technology combine, forcing the world to change, young people feel empowered and capable shaping the world. <a href="https://twitter.com/StateYouth/status/381828517337370624" rel="nofollow">84%</a> of this generation of young people believes it’s their duty to change the world for the better, said <a href="https://twitter.com/zeenat" rel="nofollow">Zeenat Rahman</a>, special adviser for global youth issues at the U.S. Department of State.<br />
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Most young people of this generation are better educated than their predecessors. Democratization of technology has democratized self-expression. Empowered with cheap technology such as mobile and expression platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, it’s almost second nature for youth to express their concerns, ambitions and hold their governments accountable.<br />
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Watch President Jim Yong&nbsp;Kim of the World Bank Group&nbsp;talk about how everyone can make their voices heard:<br />
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As technology makes the world increasingly one global village, we will see more collaboration worldwide primarily because of young people. Recently, when I spoke to <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/team/rachel-kyte" rel="nofollow">Rachel Kyte</a>, vice president of sustainable development at the <a href="worldbank.org" rel="nofollow">World Bank Group</a>, she suggested young people are less concerned about acquiring personal wealth and more about <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/youthink/why-young-people-are-ready-fight-climate-change" rel="nofollow">making sure they and their peers have access to resources</a>.<br />
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Social media allows young people to exchange ideas and collaborate seamlessly. Challenges of a faraway land are not usually ignored by global youth, mainly because of the way they share information. What happens in one corner of the word makes an immediate impact in another. Young people use social media to organize and impact events on the ground. We have seen that from India to Egypt.<br />
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While the process of self-expression has become inexpensive and easy, young people understand that challenges facing them are complex. And the solutions won’t be easy. They believe changes that are needed are more <a href="http://www.prosumer-report.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/MGv16no crops.pdf" rel="nofollow">about people and less about political ideology</a>. From the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/the-outsiders-how-can-millennials-change-washington-if-they-hate-it/278920/" rel="nofollow">United States</a> to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ravi-kumar/young-people-will-invent-_b_3733323.html" rel="nofollow">Sierra Leone</a>, young people are taking matters in their own hands to make an impact. They think governments are slow and usually incapable of tackling complex challenges that need immediate solution. That is why they are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/magazine/24volunteerism-t.html?pagewanted=all" rel="nofollow">working with each other</a>, at times experimenting and failing, to tackle problems.<br />
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Historian Arnold J. Toynbee once wrote, “Growth takes place whenever a challenge evokes a successful response that, in turn, evokes a further and different challenge.” The world has made enormous advances but faces new global challenges. Young people know they will inherit a world facing the impacts of climate change and pervasive inequality.<br />
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One message that I took away from the Social Good Summit was that youth are working hard to meet the challenge with solutions. With access to technology in a global world, youth are bound to be unconventional leaders of international development.<br />
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Tell us what you think in the comments.</p>
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:28:00 -0400Ravi Kumar